Main menu

Post navigation

Hermès + Kermit Oliver

It seems that European luxury fashion brands are all about good ‘ole Texas these days. Chanel brought its annual fashion show, Métiers d’Art, to Dallas this past December, a large-scale event that has previously been held in locations including a castle in Scotland and a barge in Shanghai. An international jet set crowd of 900 descended on the city to view the collection inspired by “the West of the Mexican border in the time of the Civil War, a more romantic Texas fantasy,” Karl Lagerfeld told the New York Times.

And last month, the Paris-based Hermès released a limited edition set of scarves designed by Waco, Texas-based painter Kermit Oliver. Oliver worked the night shift at the local post office for 29 years before he sent one of his naturalistic paintings to the Hermès headquarters in 1984 (more on the artist’s background here). At the time, Jean-Louis Dumas of Hermès reached out to his friend Lawrence Marcus (as in Neiman Marcus) to recommend an artist who could capture the spirit of the Southwest. Oliver was at the top of his list, and Dumas agreed, collaborating with the artist on a print featuring a turkey. The current edition, La Vie sauvage du Texas, is the 17th in the now historied series, and celebrates the state’s wildlife.

The design was produced in four colors in an edition of 2,000 each, and is available now in Hermès Dallas and Houston stores. The rest of us non-Texans can snatch one up when they become available nationwide this coming fall–that is, of course, if they don’t sell out per usual to the brand and artist’s Texan fans. As a nod to the inspiration behind the print, portion of scarf sales benefits the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute.